In Morocco at moment so won't be phoning to check but I have had no correspondence from my contacts at PV who keep me informed. The situation will still be as it was the last post I made. It is a very rare occurence that a reopening occurs sooner than noted.

Notification from Parks that the Silverband Road is opening tomorrow 12 December at 11:30 am. There will be a short site tour from the Rosea CarPark at 10 am sharp for anyone who is interested.
Unfortunately this doesn't mean that Rosea is open. I've checked with Parks and they are still working on the track. I was hoping that it might be open to climbers as we only follow the tourist track for 5 minutes but not so.

On 11/12/2012 kieranl wrote:>.. Parks and they are still working on the track. I was hoping that it might>be open to climbers as we only follow the tourist track for 5 minutes but>not so.

Does anyone really understand what is going on here?
I suspect from rumours that the track works are a substantial upgrade to the previous walking track. This can be compared to closing the Natimuk-Arapiles road until they upgrade it to a 4-lane freeway. Except in any case we are just trying to get to Goroke. Whaaat?

On 11/12/2012 gfdonc wrote:>>Does anyone really understand what is going on here?>I suspect from rumours that the track works are a substantial upgrade>to the previous walking track. This can be compared to closing the Natimuk-Arapiles>road until they upgrade it to a 4-lane freeway. Except in any case we>are just trying to get to Goroke. Whaaat?>
I don't know in detail but I understand that the track was to be relocated in places (because of erosion?) so some sections of new track would have to be built in addition to repairs. Very disappointing that this is still closed. Of the almost 7 years since the large fires of January 2006 Mount Rosea has been closed to the public for 4. That's not good. There's got to be a better way than these blanket closures.

I'm waiting to hear back on further information as to what stage the contractors are at and the time frame we are looking at and will go from there.

Some of the reasons to take into account why it has been taking so long - The damage to the track was the flood event. They only recently received insurance money to cover the repairs to a number of places. And possibly like a few other repair jobs in the park, not all is covered by insurance and the park are then required to make up the difference. The track received some damage down lower(where we access it) which wasn't too bad in the grand scheme of things but there are other parts where it is now not possible to have the track due to really serious damage. The track has needed to be realigned through a new area. This takes quite a while to assess where the best place would be and is it viable. As it is a new track that has to be cut and ground disturbed, this then needs to have an application put in for it to be assessed by an Indigenous cultural heritage team. All new tracks and works that PV do that disturb ground are required to undergo this. All of this takes time and money and unfortunately that isn't something that PV has a lot of.
I did discuss the possbility of climbers accessing it. The problem is Rosea is a really popular area with a number of user groups who want to access it and who have been asking as much as we have. If they allow climbers to access it, then they have little leg to stand on to tell the other groups they are not allowed to.
In the bigger picture, what is really disturbing is that budget cuts and 'streamlining' of our parks service are making it more and more difficult to get these kind of works done in a decent timeline.

Just finished speaking with PV. Good news. Rosea climbing area is open for climbing! They have agreed that as we only need to use a small section of the walking track at the start then this will be acceptable in order for us to access the climbers track. Please note though that the Rosea walking track is still officially closed so don't use this to access any other part of the area. Other users are still not able to use it and the area and walking track won't be promoted.
I assured them that it is highly unlikely that the climbers will want to be doing anything other than walking up the climbers track and climbing :)

On 12/12/2012 access t wrote:>Hi All,>>Just finished speaking with PV. Good news. Rosea climbing area is open>for climbing! They have agreed that as we only need to use a small section>of the walking track at the start then this will be acceptable in order>for us to access the climbers track. Please note though that the Rosea>walking track is still officially closed so don't use this to access any>other part of the area. Other users are still not able to use it and the>area and walking track won't be promoted.>I assured them that it is highly unlikely that the climbers will want>to be doing anything other than walking up the climbers track and climbing>:)>>Cheers,>Tracey

That is excellent news Tracey and we are indepted by your (& VCC), tireless efforts to gain/keep access for climbers.
Thank you for a job well done, and I trust climbers will keep the faith you have shown in them.

Thanks too, to Parks Vic, for letting some common sense enter this access situation!
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